Bloody Johann

This is the kind of thing you pray it will be bad in a fun way. Unfortunately, that's not the case here. Bloody Johann is a tedious combination of creative ineptitude and incompetence, annoying actors’ plankiness, and screenwriting cluelessness. This is what the Halloween special of a random afternoon soap opera would look like if someone had stretched it to an unbearable 90 minutes. The most fascinating thing about this project is that in the plethora of serious actors, the best and only conscious performance, given the nature of the film, is ultimately given by two porn actresses. I'm all for supporting a promising, even if cheap and enthusiastic, horror project in our culture, but this is definitely not the way to go. I haven't had such an urge to leave the cinema in a long time. (10/31/2023)

I caught Bloody Johann at ComicCon in 2023, and it's definitely a wild ride, but that's part of the charm. Just as it starts to drag towards the end, the creators ramp up the action and deliver a finale that you wouldn't expect, especially with the fantastic music score. It's different, crazy, but ultimately entertaining. Ployhar and Zach stood out as the best characters. I love genre films, and if Czech cinema continues down this path, I'd be thrilled. (11/19/2023)